World's Worst Timing
by makesometime
Summary: Four times Jim Shannon wishes he'd just been five minutes later - and one time being early would have been quite brilliant, thank you. A cracky/AU/future!fic/fun times amalgam featuring: Taylor/Wash, Mark/Maddy, Elisabeth/Malcolm, one-sided. And poor Jim


Well. This was really just brought about by the fact that I am absolutely smitten with Jim Shannon, yet adore the thought of him being in uncomfortable situations.

One of the moments incorporates a mini!fill of a prompt in the November prompt post at the LJ Terra Nova Fanfic comm: "Taylor is injured, receives a dosage of tainted meds and suddenly gets all touchy-feeling with Wash."

* * *

><p><span>1. TaylorWash - Morning

Jim Shannon makes his way back from the market in the dawn light, basket of precious groceries tucked under his arm. It's his and Elisabeth's first anniversary since arriving in Terra Nova and he's been planning this day for weeks.

He's so caught up in running through his schedule for the day that he nearly bumps right into Commander Taylor coming down the front steps of the quarters he's passing. The man looks as relaxed as Jim has ever seen him, especially at this time of the morning. His hair is still wet from the shower and he smiles broadly as he takes a deep breath of fresh air.

"Morning Shannon."

"Taylor." Jim said hesitantly, eyes flitting between him and the front door he'd just walked through. "Say, isn't that…"

"Morning, Shannon." Jim hears and he looks back to the door to find Lieutenant Washington locking up behind herself. Her hair is still wet also, up in its customary ponytail and Jim does his best not to stare as theories fly through his head.

"Isn't that what?" Taylor asks, and Jim looks back to the older man, well aware of how particularly clueless he must look.

"Oh, nothing." Jim says, smiling brightly.

The pair of soldiers stand in front of him now, Taylor with his hand resting on his gun and Wash with her thumbs through her belt loops and they just watch him for a moment.

Jim cracks almost instantly. "Lovely day today isn't it?" He says, the first mindless thing that comes into his head. Mindless being the key word.

The pair share a look of barely-contained amusement before parting and walking either side of him towards the command building.

"Enjoy your day Shannon." Taylor calls back to him.

Jim spurs into movement, walking double speed back to his home and slamming the door shut behind him. He leans up against it, catching his breath as Elisabeth pads out of their bedroom, wiping sleep from her eyes.

"What on earth is going on?"

He contemplates what to say next for all of half a second. "Can you keep a secret?"

2. Mark/Maddy - Grown Up

Jim lingers in the security offices until Guzman threatens to throw him out and he has to face the fact that he can't avoid the inevitable any longer. After the relative success of Skye's first official family dinner with them, it was Mark Reynolds' turn tonight.

Jim still isn't sure what to think of the boy - with Skye it was easy, she helped make Josh's transition to Terra Nova as easy as it was likely to ever get and he's incredibly grateful to the girl for that. But Reynolds. He'd probably have a slightly easier time accepting him if he wasn't after his _Maddy._

His plan for the evening involves turning up after Reynolds has already arrived, a whole load of excuses spilling from his lips like it was the easiest thing in the world. Elisabeth wouldn't be fooled but she's fond enough of the boy that she wouldn't mind - and Reynolds is scared enough of him that it would probably be easier for all involved if he had a little time to settle in and calm down.

He rounds the last corner before their home comes into view and notices the light spilling out onto their porch immediately. The familiar figure of his eldest daughter is silhouetted in the doorway, and standing in front of her is Reynolds. Jim watches as he hands Maddy a bouquet of flowers and can't hold back a little scoff.

"Charmer." He mutters and sneaks closer to the house to spy for a little longer, despite knowing how very, very badly that could go for him.

He watches as Maddy's beautiful face flushes with pride and a little embarrassment at whatever Mark is saying to her. Despite Jim's misgivings the boy _is_ good for her - bringing the shy teenager he'd been forced by the law to leave behind out of her shell in the nicest possible way.

Jim notices Maddy's eyes stray beyond Mark and turns his head to find Skye and Tasha hidden in the shadow of a building a couple down from him. They're making kissy faces at her and Jim laughs - clearly they didn't know his daughter very well yet.

He looks back at Maddy, sees her arms wound around Mark's neck and slams a hand over his hastily closed eyes.

Okay. So. Maybe it was _him_ that didn't know his daughter very well.

3. Malcolm and Elisabeth - Success

His wife has been working all the hours in the day on solving one of Malcolm's scientific conundrums recently, and Jim has had enough. Their children are sick of not seeing their mother, he's sick of not seeing his wife and Elisabeth is sick of not getting enough sleep. Their household is a very grumpy place at the moment.

He conspires to get the night off from Taylor - the older man puts up little of a fight, in fact he's almost eager to get rid of him. When Jim passes Wash on his way down the command building stairs, a bottle of whiskey in her hand, he thinks he can figure out why.

He plans it all out, gets Maddy on dinner duty, Josh off of his shift at work (he carefully doesn't consider how much he owes Boylan for that favour) and Zoe into her nicest new outfit. He then tells the kids he'll be right back and heads for the science department.

The building is lit up but silent when he approaches. He steps inside quietly - he's walked in his usual fashion in the past and been scolded by some of Malcolm's colleagues for disrupting delicate experiments - and spots his wife instantly.

She's hunched over a work surface with Malcolm, the pair of them pressed up against each other as they look at something on a datapad. They don't see him, even when Malcolm shouts in triumph and Elisabeth jumps up, flinging her arms around him.

"We did it!" She cries and her joyous tone is enough to make Jim smile also. That, and it probably means she'll actually be at home for more than half an hour at a time, so he's over the moon in an instant.

That is, until he sees Malcolm press a kiss to Elisabeth's hair and Jim's hands clench into fists in his pockets.

Elisabeth doesn't notice, or pretends not to notice, turning back to the table with a broad grin. Malcolm looks disappointed for all of a split second before his scientific curiosity gets the best of him and he's reviewing their results alongside her again.

Jim leaves it a beat before walking further into the room and at the sound of his footsteps on the floor Elisabeth looks up and beams at him. "Hi honey!" She says.

"Jim." Malcolm acknowledges, and if he feels guilty at all it doesn't show.

"I came to steal my wife away for a while, is that okay?"

"We actually just finished, so I'm free." Elisabeth says, turning to Malcolm. "Go home and get some rest, we can sort everything out tomorrow."

Malcolm nods his assent and Elisabeth smiles fondly at the man before coming to stand next to Jim and take his hand.

Jim leads her from the building, smiling in all the right places at her excited explanations of things he will _never_ understand and wishing that he hadn't witness Malcolm's moment of weakness. He was just coming around to the man.

4. Taylor/Wash - Meds

Jim's running late. Really late. Zoe has a stomach bug and Josh wouldn't get out of bed and he's working out a way to word this to Taylor that won't seem hopelessly pathetic which is totally his justification for walking in on... this

If asked to come up with his top ten list of 'Things He'd Never Expect To See Commander Nathaniel Taylor Doing', he's pretty sure 'Nuzzling The Neck Of His Second In Command' would be damn near the top.

"Commander." Wash says forcefully, hands firm on the fronts of the man's shoulders. He only chuckles and moves his lips further up her neck and behind her ear. "_Nathaniel_." She says with more force and Jim pretends not to hear the hint of reluctant arousal in her tone.

He's about to make his presence known when one of Wash's hands strays to her belt and plucks a hypo from it. She runs her other hand up to cup the back of his neck tenderly as his arms come around her, hands tracing down to cup her backside… and then she slams the hypo into the exposed side of his neck with such speed that Jim barely registers the movement.

Taylor pulls back and stares blearily at her for a fraction of a second before falling forward as dead weight against her.

"You just going to stand there or are you going to help me out Shannon?" Wash asks without turning around.

Jim doesn't question how she knows he's there, just rushes forward to take the strain.

"Thanks." She huffs, changing her position so one of Taylor's arms is over her shoulders. "He had some bad meds." She says, clearly reluctant to explain too much. "There are... side effects."

Jim nods. "Good thing he was unconscious when I got here then, huh?"

Wash smiles gratefully at him, then looks at the man slumped between them. "It'll be a trek to the hospital, you ready?"

Jim laughs, helping her drag him to the door. "He's high as a kite, it'll be a breeze."

Wash is silent for a moment, kicking the door as a signal for someone to come and open it. "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that."

Jim coughs. "Yeah… yeah. That's probably for the best."

5. Wash and Maddy - Advice

Jim walks past the marketplace on his way back to the security offices, due to meet Maddy for lunch in a few minutes time.

He stops when he sees her approaching the other side of the market, changing his course to intercept her until he realises her intended destination is Lieutenant Washington. He makes a snap decision to awkwardly loiter by the fruit stall a short distance away instead.

"Lieutenant? Do you have a moment?" He hears Maddy asks and tries not to stare - what on earth could his daughter need with Wash?

"Of course Maddy, make it quick though."

"I was just wondering… Oh, this seemed like a better idea in my head." Maddy said, winding her fingers together fretfully. "Do you have any um, advice about how to handle the stress of Mark going OTG? Because every time he's out there I feel like I'm going to _explode_with worry."

Wash frowns. "And why would you ask me that?"

"You know, because you and the Commander are-." His daughter trails off, as if suddenly realising what the words that just came out of her mouth were precisely **not** what she meant them to be.

Jim winces at her words, instantly looking for an escape route.

Wash leans in closer to the younger girl. "Are what, Maddy?" She demands.

"Oh. Um. Nothing. Forget I said anything." Maddy stammers out, clearly searching for her own route out of there.

Wash grabs Maddy's arm and pulls her over to a section of the gate which is unguarded. Jim unconsciously creeps closer to them.

"Who told you that? Was it Mark?"

"No!" Maddy blurts reflexively. "I mean… no one told me. I'm sorry, I didn't meant to imply anything."

Wash fixes her with a calculating stare. "I don't believe you could work it out on your own."

"No, of course not, you two are very-." Maddy starts, flinching when Wash's eyes narrow at her. "Discreet." She finishes in a whisper.

Wash is silent but both Shannons can hear the cogs whirring in her head and both see the moment of realisation flash over her face. Her head snaps up to look around her, as if sensing that her target is nearby.

"SHANNON!" She shouts, spotting him lurking in the crowd.

He can't help it, Alicia Washington is terrifying when she's angry.

He runs.


End file.
